Runaway
by Certacy
Summary: Sirius has finally had all he can take with his family and needs to get out, the sooner the better. I'm sorry about the title, I'm no good at them! Made at about 1am but I'm quite proud of it nonetheless :  Rated for minor language.


**Hey everyone, just finished this. I'm actually quite proud of this one. Reviews would be appreciated :)

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Sirius couldn't take any more. He had to get out of Grimmauld – he _had _to. He was going to murder somebody if he didn't get out there soon. He was fed up of his dad lecturing him about his friends, how just because one was a werewolf he was therefore a terrible person, how the Potters were blood traitors, how the Pettigrews didn't have a high enough social status.

He was fed up of his mother always comparing him to Regulus, constantly complaining about how Sirius had ruined the Black family name by being sorted into Gryffindor, how he didn't have any understanding of life and always insulting him because he didn't know how a pure-blood should act.

Had they ever contemplated the fact that Sirius didn't want to be a Black? That he would rather die than be in Slytherin? No, of course they hadn't. Sirius always had to be wrong, nobody understood him.

Nobody knew how lonely Sirius felt during the holidays – whenever he was around his family. He never told James, Remus or Peter, nobody, because he was worried that they would think he was a wimp. They wouldn't say it, of course, definitely not Remus, but he knew that they'd think it. Sirius Black was the bloke all the girls wanted to be with, the bloke that people admired, not a cowardly wimp that didn't go out to parties, just stayed home and did homework each summer.

He'd told his friends that he hated his family, of course, but everybody his age slagged off their parents so nobody took as much notice as they would do if they knew Sirius' real feelings towards it.

Sirius had been planning to get the hell out of that house for a while, his temper getting shorter and shorter whenever his parents argued with him, getting more eager and eager to go each time Regulus gave him that irritating, smug look.

After being criticized one time too many, Sirius stormed upstairs, slamming his bedroom door behind him (ignoring his mother's screams at him for wearing out the house) and picked up his school suitcase, packing a few sets of clothes, along with his school robes and a few school books. He put his wand in his pocket, his suitcase in one hand, a broomstick in the other.

As he walked downstairs, he heard Regulus ask harshly, "Where are you going?" Sirius turned back to his brother for a second, feeling sorry that Regulus hadn't taken the same path as him and that he'd actually listened to his parents and grown up to believe that pure-bloods were actually superior compared to half-bloods and muggle-borns.

"I'm getting out of here." replied Sirius, curtly. Regulus frowned for a second, digesting the information as Sirius walked towards the front door.

"_Mum!_" Regulus shouted, suddenly. Sirius realised that Regulus was planning on getting him into deep trouble and made a bolt out of the house. He jogged for a little bit, though looking ridiculous as he had two arms full of heavy items. He heard the front door open behind him but didn't turn around.

"_Sirius Orion Black!" _his mum screeched at the top of her lungs. "_You get yourself back here before_ _I get your father here and he'll make you feel sorry!" _she threatened. _Shit, _Sirius muttered to himself. He didn't show any sign of defeat by carrying on his now sprint out of the area.

Where was he going to go? He had no idea. What was he going to eat? Well, luckily, Sirius had sneaked a few galleons into his pocket before he'd left, but he wasn't sure what good galleons would do in the centre of Muggle London.

He tried to remember any particular addresses of people who didn't hate him. That ruled out the majority of his family (excluding Andromeda but he couldn't, for the life of him, remember where she lived), however his friends from Hogwarts wouldn't mind it. He'd stayed a Christmas with Remus' family, but they lived somewhere near Cornwall and Sirius wasn't even sure how many miles away that was. He'd never been to Peter's house so he had no idea where he lived, and then there was James.

He'd spent a week of the summer the previous year with James once and had got to know the area quite well. It was quite far away but, on his broom, Sirius was sure he'd be there in a matter of hours – being in a Muggle area, however, would make this extremely difficult.

Sirius then remembered that, countless times, his mother had flooed both himself and Regulus to Diagon Alley when they got their Hogwarts equiptment; maybe if he could find a house with a floo network he could go to the Leaky Cauldron (as James' house doesn't have a floo network due to privacy reasons), get a room for the night and owl James with the owls provided.

That plan would work, Sirius nodded, but frowned at the sudden realisation: where would he find a house with a floo network? After walking around a little, Sirius decided that a better idea would be to use the infamous yet poorly recommended Knight Bus to James' house if he wanted to get anywhere away from home.

Hesitantly, Sirius pulled out his wand. _Surely pulling out his wand and holding it out in front of the road doesn't class as Magic? _Sirius pondered. The last thing he wanted was to use underage magic and then get sent to the Ministry before being found by his father. Sirius shrugged it off and held out his wand. Almost immediately, a purple triple-decker bus came out of nowhere. The surprise of it almost made Sirius fall over but he steadied himself. The bus came to a halt in front of him and a young man in a purple uniform gave Sirius an artificial smile.

"Hello, welcome to the Knight Bus. I'm Zack Hunt and I'll be your conductor. Now if you'll just give me your stuff…" Zack mumbled, taking hold of Sirius' suitcase and broomstick and throwing it in a luggage compartment. Sirius climbed on and took a seat on a bed near the front. He'd heard things about the Knight Bus but he'd never been on it before, so he braced himself for a broken arm or something.

"So, where you off to, then?" Zack asked.

"Willowbrook Road," Sirius answered, giving the name of James' road. He gripped the bottom of the bed hard, as if expecting to be thrown out the bus as soon as it began moving – then again, who wouldn't?

"Well we may as well skip you to the first of the queue as it's closer than the next stop. Ern, take it to Willowbrook Road, would ya?" he said. A moment later, the bus shook for a split second before rocketing off into the distance. Sirius only vaguely could see where they were – he found some things familiar but, as all he could see were blurs of corner shops and fuzzy houses, Sirius wasn't sure.

The actual speed of the bus had taken Sirius by surprise. People had told him it was fast and reckless; however Sirius hadn't expected it to be _so _fast and reckless. He would've fallen off the bed if it wasn't for his tightened grip on it.

"You look underage," Zack acknowledged. "You a runaway?"

"What's that got to do with you?" retorted Sirius, rudely.

"Nothin' really happens 'ere, usually old witches visiting their grandchildren or whatever." Zack shrugged. Suddenly, Sirius was aware that there was an elderly woman behind him. She had short, fluffy white hair and a very lined face – basically what you'd expect in an old woman.

"Are you my granddaughter?" she asked, squinting her eyes at Sirius, waiting for an answer.

"Er, no," Sirius frowned.

"Daisy? Is that you?" she said in the same tone.

"No, I'm not even a girl!" answered Sirius, offended.

"Really?" said the woman, taking hold of a few strands of Sirius' dark and curly shoulder length hair. "Well, you should get this hair cut then. You look like a woman." And with that, the old woman returned to the back of the bus.

"Don't mind her," Zack began. "She thinks everybody is her granddaughter."

Sirius didn't really care so he kept his mouth shut in order not to reply rudely. There was a silence on the bus for a minute and then the bus came to a sudden halt. Confused, Sirius looked out the window and saw that it was his stop already. He grabbed his broomstick and suitcase and practically ran off the bus, not uttering another word.

He walked down the road for a while, trying to spot James' house and when he did, his heart skipped a beat (not in a homosexual way, in the excited way). He swallowed before walking towards it slowly, and knocking on the door. After about thirty seconds, there was still no answer. Sirius frowned and tried again. No answer.

"Oh, James…. You complete prick…" he cursed. Sighing, Sirius sat down, leaning against the door. Opening his suitcase, he looked for something that would pass the time. He found his study books but studying to pass the time was such a Remus-ey thing to do. He closed his suitcase and took his wand out of his pocket, making coloured patterns in mid-air.

After a two hours of doing nothing in particular and taking the occasional walk, Sirius heard James' laugh and Mr and Mrs Potter's voices. Standing up immediately, all anger draining from him, he shouted, "James!"

James looked around confusedly, then, spotting Sirius in his front garden, ran up to him.

"Sirius! What the hell are you doing here?" he asked, happy but surprised. James' parents also looked surprised and they walked up to Sirius behind James.

"I've… just had it with home…" Sirius replied, honestly. "Could I stay here for a little while?"

"Of course," James nodded. "That's okay, isn't it?" he asked, turning to his parents who nodded. James turned back to Sirius. "How long have you been here for? How did you even _get _here?"

"I took the Knight Bus and I've been outside for _hours! _Where were you?"

"Shopping." James muttered, embarrassed. When everybody was inside, James asked Sirius about the knight bus and why he suddenly had an urge to get out. They had a talk for a while and then Sirius was told to write a letter to his parents explaining that he was safe but wasn't going to go back for a while.

Sirius knew just one thing – now that he was out, he was never going to go back, for at least as long as he could help it.

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**Hope you enjoyed, please review! I'm sorry about the suckish last line but I didn't know how to end it. Thanks for reading :)**


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